Presented to The Grand Junction Convention and Visitors Bureau

Director of Sales: Barbara Bowman

Gateway Reservations

Over the last 25 years, Gateway Reservations has become a leader in providing a comprehensive, flexible and scalable reservations solution including: A “One-Stop-Shop” travel planning and reservations service

allowing incoming visitors to compare rates, amenities and availability for lodging and activity options.

A feature rich, 24/7 online booking engine.

An optional, professionally-staffed call center service option.

Fulfill unique “packages” utilizing any participating supplier.

Other services include: Group services, equipment rentals, ground and air transportation,

lift tickets, car/limo/shuttle rentals, spa products, event tickets, dining and more.

Leverage our 25 years of experience and service to help you make the most of your Central Reservations Service. Our services include: Grand Junction CVB Service and Support:

On-demand, performance and marketing effectiveness reporting to aid in marketing efficiency.

Ability to create on-demand package development and promotion.

Supplier management: Support – Technical support as well as supplier revenue and sales goal

support.

The Online Booking Engine Online Booking Engine’s (OBE’s) have become a service

standard in the tourism industry. However, not all OBE’s are the same. A standard OBE may be insufficient to manage the Grand Junction CVB’s branding, targeting, reporting, and conversion needs.

Gateway provides one of the most comprehensive, customized and scalable online booking engines in the marketplace with built-in packaging, cross-selling, and up-selling functionality to go beyond a simple hotel reservation.

Our OBE is supplier managed meaning the supplier maintains complete control over their inventory, descriptions, etc. so the CVB doesn’t have to waste resources managing the supply.

The Call Center Option: An optional professional, sales-oriented call center service: Take call volume and customer management off of CVB

staff ’s workload so that they can concentrate on revenue generating and growth activities.

Quote and booking follow ups on all itineraries for cross selling and up selling opportunities.

Emphasis on closing, up selling, and cross selling during calls.

On average, in 2011 more than 62% of revenues were generated through the call center.

Call center services, on average, convert more than 45% higher revenues per itinerary.

As a simplified overview, here is how CenRes works:

1. A Supplier loads their rates and availability through their secure, online account.

2. A guest enters their arrival and departure dates into the online booking engine or gives them to a call center agent.

3. Any supplier that has availability during the guests dates will show up along with pictures, rates, descriptions and more comparison tools to help the guest select the best option.

4. The OBE or call center agent will then give the guest ideas of complementary options such as activities, packages, etc. to consider adding to their itinerary.

5. Once the guests itinerary is confirmed, the guest and all individual suppliers on the itinerary get an instant email and/or fax with all reservation details.

6. From there, CenRes disperses all fulfillment instructions , tickets, etc. to the guest as well as any payments due to the supplier.

Our CenRes services can help the Grand Junction CVB to:

1. Create a conversion and fulfillment tool.

2. Segment and target the market more effectively.

3. Position the Grand Junction brand.

4. Increase marketing efficiency and effectiveness.

5. Increase tourism related revenues.

6. Decrease overhead and allowing more money to be spent on marketing and generating demand.

7. Providing tourism partners a tool for incremental growth.

8. Providing potential visitors with a comprehensive vacation planning service.

1) CenRes as a Conversion Tool: Gives the Grand Junction CVB a tool to convert

destination marketing efforts - taking the demand it generates and converting that demand into booked, measurable sales.

Converts visitors during their planning stages. Provides convenient “One-Stop-Shop” to streamline

booking for potential visitors. Creates a single call to action for marketing efforts. Provides itinerary quotes by email so guests can

review, share, and click to book when ready. With Call Center Services, all quotes and bookings are

followed up on regularly to increase conversion and maintain top of mind positioning.

2) CenRes as a Segmentation Tool: a) Allows the Grand Junction CVB to target and segment its

marketing efforts with unique package offerings. Packages allow the CVB to create new “products” to attract desired

customer segments and help position the destination in the marketplace.

In CO, over 1.85 Million vacation packages were booked in 2008 – up over 200% from the year 2000 which was at approx. 830K*

In 2011, an average of over 65% of all CenRes bookings were packages

b) CenRes can customize and build packages on-demand to suit the Grand Junction CVB’s marketing efforts quickly and easily.

c) CenRes creates unified package offerings for the Tourism community.

Creating consistency when compared to individual, supplier-created packages which can be hard for visitors to find and inconsistent in offerings.

*Source: Longwood's Colorado Travel Year 2008 Final Report

3) Helps Grand Junction to position its brand and add to the accessibility of its offerings.

Packages can help to reinforce the brand in the mind of the visitor and relative to its competition. For example, if branding a destination as a family friendly

destination, a CenRes can build a package utilizing family friendly options and use that as a call to action in marketing.

Creating more experiential vacations also helps guests to make the most of their vacation while reinforcing the brand image.

Qualify guests’ needs and to fit the customers expectations and budget, making the destination more accessible. Providing neutral recommendations based on needs and real-time

comparisons of rates, availability and amenities.

The customer has seamless access to lodging and activity options in a single place.

4) CenRes as a tool to increase marketing effectiveness:a) Providing a comprehensive and in-depth reporting tool

including On-demand, customizable reporting on performance indicators such as:

ADR (Average Daily Rate). Call volume vs. Internet booking volume. With Call Center Services, incoming phone calls are tracked providing valuable

information about marketing effectiveness. In addition, standardized monthly reporting is provided. Revenue comparisons, avg. order revenue, avg. length of stay, top geographical markets, sales by

zip code and much more.

**(See the sample on the following page for Standardized Reporting examples)

b) Enrich and enhance Grand Junction CVB’s Customer Database and fulfillment requests. Guests can opt in or out of marketing communications at the time of sale

and all guest info is provided to the Grand Junction CVB. Booked reservations also include visitor preferences and interests

data. Guests can also request Grand Junction travel planners for travel planning.

5) Can help to increase tourism related revenues:a) Software tools (and call center agents) are able to “up and

cross sell” the destinations offerings. This keeps the guest in the destination longer, resulting in more

lodging tax, sales tax and supplier revenues for the community. Call Center Services are sales driven, so the focus is on increasing

conversions and maximizing every sale.

b) By up and cross selling, CenRes is able to: Increase the average length of stay. Increase the average $$ spending per stay. Increase the frequency of return to the destination.

6) CenRes as a tool to decrease overhead & increase marketing spending:

a) CenRes is at a very low cost to the Grand Junction CVB

Allowing it to maximize its budget allocations to activities that help to generate demand and promote growth for the destination.

b) With optional Call Center Services, CenRes will facilitate guest requests for information and increases sales conversion.

This minimizes administrative time, overhead, and other expenses by lightening the Grand Junction CVB’s call volume and requests for information.

c) CenRes facilitates all processes for seamless packaging for the guest and the supplier – in turn, making packaging easy for the CVB.

7) CenRes provides an effective tool for suppliers to incrementally manage yields and increase revenues. Incremental growth to complement existing sales efforts.

A Supplier’s marketing dollar should be spent to drive direct and repeat sales. CenRes supplements that with new, incremental business.

Suppliers maintain complete control of their participation and how their product is presented to the customer including:

This levels the playing field for suppliers – Participating Suppliers are represented randomly, neutrally and fairly which allows those suppliers with smaller marketing budgets to compete with larger, more well known options.

We can help add to a suppliers product mix with the opportunity to offer their own exclusive “private packages” and online booking solutions.

Availability Rates Policies

Photos Product Descriptions

Minimum Stay, Advanced Booking and more…

8) CenRes provides guests with a comprehensive planning and booking tool.

Visitors simply enter their preferred travel dates/preferences and they are given real-time comparisons and availability pulled from the inventory that suppliers have provided.

Online, all search results are displayed in random order.

With optional Call Center service, agents qualify guest needs and suggest recommendations based on their specific requests.

Our optional Call Center service is staffed with Colorado local professionals that provide unbiased information.

CenRes can also uniquely facilitate group bookings easily for the supplier and group coordinator.

Great value for wedding, family reunion and sporting event planners that want to coordinate room and activity blocks but allow members to pay separately. Learn more at GatewayReservations.com/Groups

Call or email Kory with any questions or to find out more:

Kory Samson

Sales and Marketing Coordinator

Kory@GatewayReservations.com

800.828.4228 ext. 305